Charles Melville Hays

Charles Melville Hays, sometimes rendered Hayes, (May 16, 1856 – April 15, 1912) was a railway official most famous for his role as president of the Grand Trunk Railway System. May 16 is the 136th day of the year in the Gregorian Calendar (137th in leap years). ... 1856 was a leap year starting on Tuesday (see link for calendar). ... April 15 is the 105th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar (106th in leap years). ... 1912 (MCMXII) was a leap year starting on Monday in the Gregorian calendar (or a leap year starting on Tuesday in the 13-day-slower Julian calendar). ... 1885 map The Grand Trunk Railway (GTR) was a historic railway system which operated in the Canadian provinces of Quebec and Ontario, as well as the American states of Maine, New Hampshire, and Vermont. ...

History

Born at Rock Island, Illinois, Hays began working for the Atlantic and Pacific Railroad in St. Louis, Missouri at the age of 17 in 1873. In 1878 Hays became secretary to the general manager of the Missouri Pacific Railroad and took a similar position in 1884 with the Wabash, St Louis and Pacific Railroad. In 1887 Hays became general manager of the Wabash Western Railroad and of the entire Wabash Railroad in 1889. Rock Island is a city located in Rock Island County, Illinois. ... Official language(s) English Capital Springfield Largest city Chicago Area  Ranked 25th  - Total 57,918 sq mi (149,998 km²)  - Width 210 miles (340 km)  - Length 390 miles (629 km)  - % water 4. ... The Atlantic and Pacific Railroad Company was chartered in New York state in 1852. ... Nickname: Gateway City, Gateway to the West, or Mound City Location in the state of Missouri Coordinates: Country United States State Missouri County Independent City Mayor Francis G. Slay (D) Area    - City 66. ... Official language(s) None Capital Jefferson City Largest city Kansas City Largest metro area St. ... 1873 (MDCCCLXXIII) was a common year starting on Wednesday (see link for calendar). ... 1878 (MDCCCLXXVIII) was a common year starting on Tuesday (see link for calendar). ... Missouri Pacific (MoPac; AAR reporting mark MP) was one of the first railroads in the United States west of the Mississippi River. ... 1884 (MDCCCLXXXIV) is a leap year starting on Tuesday (click on link to calendar) of the Gregorian calendar (or a leap year starting on Thursday of the 12-day-slower Julian calendar). ... 1887 (MDCCCLXXXVII) is a common year starting on Saturday (click on link for calendar) of the Gregorian calendar or a common year starting on Monday of the Julian calendar. ... Categories: Rail stubs | Defunct railroad companies of the United States | Illinois railroads | Indiana railroads | Ohio railroads ... 1889 (MDCCCLXXXIX) was a common year starting on Tuesday (see link for calendar). ...

In an 1895 reorganization of the Grand Trunk, Hays was appointed general manager effective January 1, 1896. Except for an interruption in 1901, Hays was general manager of the Grand Trunk from 1896 to 1909. In 1904 Hays was also appointed president of Grand Trunk subsidiary Grand Trunk Pacific, then under construction from Winnipeg, Manitoba to Prince Rupert, British Columbia. Hays became president of the entire Grand Trunk system in 1909, a position he held until his death. 1895 (MDCCCXCV) was a common year starting on Tuesday (see link for calendar) of the Gregorian calendar (or a common year starting on Thursday of the 12-day-slower Julian calendar). ... January 1 is the first day of the calendar year in both the Julian and Gregorian calendars. ... 1896 (MDCCCXCVI) was a leap year starting on Wednesday (see link for calendar). ... 1901 (MCMI) was a common year starting on Tuesday (see link for calendar) of the Gregorian calendar (or a common year starting on Wednesday of the 13-day-slower Julian calendar). ... 1896 (MDCCCXCVI) was a leap year starting on Wednesday (see link for calendar). ... 1909 (MCMIX) was a common year starting on Friday (see link for calendar). ... 1904 (MCMIV) was a leap year starting on a Friday (link will take you to calendar). ... Grand Trunk Pacific Railway logo or herald The Grand Trunk Pacific Railway (GTPR) was a historical Canadian railway. ... Motto: Template:Unhide = Unum Cum Virtute Multorum (One With the Strength of Many) Location City Information Established: 1738 (Fort Rouge), 1873 (City of Winnipeg) Area: 465. ... Motto: Gloriosus et Liber (Latin: Glorious and free) Official languages English and French, per mandate of the Constitution Act 1982 Flower Prairie Crocus Tree White Spruce Bird Great Grey Owl Capital Winnipeg Largest city Winnipeg Lieutenant-Governor John Harvard Premier Gary Doer (NDP) Parliamentary representation  - House seat  - Senate seats 14... Orthographic projection centred over Prince Rupert BC Coast, showing Prince Rupert and Vancouver Prince Rupert is a city in the province of British Columbia, Canada. ... Motto: Splendor Sine Occasu (Latin: Splendour without diminishment) Official languages none stated in law; English is de facto Flower Pacific dogwood Tree Western Redcedar Bird Stellers Jay Capital Victoria Largest city Vancouver Lieutenant-Governor Iona Campagnolo Premier Gordon Campbell (BC Liberal) Parliamentary representation  - House seat  - Senate seats 36 6...

Arriving in Canada during a time of economic recession, Hays sought to restructure the management and operations of the Grand Trunk system and implemented a more aggressive, American railroading approach which is credited in part for a period of unprecedented growth during the first decade of the 20th century. A recession is usually defined in macroeconomics as a fall of a countrys Gross National Product in two successive quarters. ... (19th century - 20th century - 21st century - more centuries) Decades: 1900s 1910s 1920s 1930s 1940s 1950s 1960s 1970s 1980s 1990s As a means of recording the passage of time, the 20th century was that century which lasted from 1901–2000 in the sense of the Gregorian calendar (1900–1999 in the...

Hays sought to have the Grand Trunk compete with the Canadian Pacific (CPR) on the prairies where an immigration boom was recording record traffic. In 1899, William MacKenzie and Donald Mann had amalgamated a number of systems into the Canadian Northern (CNoR) and spurned federal government offers of assistance in coordinating the construction of a second transcontinental railway, preferring instead to go it alone. The Canadian Pacific Railway (CPR; AAR reporting marks CP, CPAA, CPI), known as CP Rail between 1968 and 1996, is a Canadian Class I railway operated by Canadian Pacific Railway Limited. ... 1899 (MDCCCXCIX) was a common year starting on Sunday (see link for calendar). ... Sir William Mackenzie Sir William Mackenzie (October 17, 1849 – December 5, 1923) was a Canadian railway contractor and entrepreneur. ... Sir Donald Mann (March 23, 1853 - November 10, 1934) was a Canadian railway contractor and entrepreneur. ... The Canadian Northern Railway (CNoR) is a historic Canadian railway. ... A transcontinental railroad is a railway across a significant portion of a continent. ...

Hays forced the Grand Trunk to reconsider federal offers to assist in building a transcontinental system, something which the company had rejected in the 1870s which had forced the federal government to go with the CPR. Having realized the error in not expanding west, Hays accepted the offer of Sir Wilfrid Laurier's government to build a system from Prince Rupert to Moncton, New Brunswick, to be called the Grand Trunk Pacific. // Events and Trends Technology The invention of the telephone (1876) by Alexander Graham Bell. ... Laurier re-directs here. ... Moncton (46°6′ N 64°46′ W) is the second largest city in the Canadian province of New Brunswick and is at the heart of the fastest growing urban area in the province. ... Motto: Spem reduxit (Hope restored) Official languages English, French Flower Violet Capital Fredericton Largest city Saint John Lieutenant-Governor Herménégilde Chiasson Premier Bernard Lord (PC) Parliamentary representation  - House seat  - Senate seats 10 10 Area Total  - Land  - Water    (% of total)  Ranked 11th 72 908 km² 71 450 km² 1...

In October 1903 the National Transcontinental Railway Act was passed by parliament and Hays became heavily involved in supervising construction of the line west of Winnipeg (the Grand Trunk Pacific). While the Grand Trunk agreed to build the line west of Winnipeg, the federal government assumed responsibility for constructing the line from Winnipeg to Moncton, including the infamous and costly Quebec Bridge crossing of the St. Lawrence River, with the Grand Trunk initially agreeing to operate the entire line as a single system. 1903 (MCMIII) was a common year starting on Thursday (see link for calendar). ... The Quebec Bridge in Canada crosses the lower Saint Lawrence River to the west of Quebec City, and Levis, Quebec. ... The Saint Lawrence River (French fleuve Saint-Laurent) is a large west-to-east flowing river in the middle latitudes of North America, connecting the Great Lakes with the Atlantic Ocean. ...

The GTP proved to be controversial for Hays as many of his decisions, such as choosing Prince Rupert as the Pacific terminus, underestimating MacKenzie and Mann's competing CNoR system, and committing the entire Grand Trunk company to the GTP project. Hays' zeal to pursue construction of a well-engineered mainline in lieu of developing a network of branchlines for feeding local traffic proved to be a considerable hurdle as well.

As president of the Grand Trunk, Hays committed to competing with the CPR in a number of other areas, namely shipping and hotels. In fact Hays was returning to Canada from a visit to England where he was scheduled to attend the April 26, 1912 grand opening of the Chateau Laurier hotel in Ottawa, Ontario. Hays had chosen to return from England on the maiden voyage of the ocean liner RMS Titanic, which struck an iceberg south of the Grand Banks of Newfoundland the night of April 14 and sank. Motto: (French for God and my right) Anthem: Multiple unofficial anthems Capital London Largest city London Official language(s) English Government Constitutional monarchy  - Queen Queen Elizabeth II  - Prime Minister Tony Blair MP Unification    - by Athelstan AD927  Area    - Total 130,395 km² (1st in UK)   50,346 sq mi   - Water (%) Population... April 26 is the 116th day of the year in the Gregorian Calendar (117th in leap years). ... 1912 (MCMXII) was a leap year starting on Monday in the Gregorian calendar (or a leap year starting on Tuesday in the 13-day-slower Julian calendar). ... teau Laurier seen from Wellington Street The Ch teau Laurier is a noted hotel in downtown Ottawa, Canada. ... This article is about the capital city of Canada. ... Motto: Ut Incepit Fidelis Sic Permanet (Latin: Loyal she began, loyal she remains) Official languages English (French has some legal status but is not fully co-official) Flower White Trillium Tree Eastern White Pine Bird Common Loon Capital Toronto Largest city Toronto Lieutenant-Governor James K. Bartleman Premier Dalton McGuinty... RMS Titanic was an Olympic class passenger liner that became infamous for its collision with an iceberg and dramatic sinking in 1912. ... An iceberg (a partial loan translation, probably from Dutch ijsberg (literally: mountain of ice),[1] cognate to German Eisberg) is a large piece of ice that has broken off from a snow-formed glacier or ice shelf and is floating in open water. ... The Grand Banks are a group of underwater plateaus southeast of Newfoundland on the North American continental shelf. ... April 14 is the 104th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar (105th in leap years). ...

Hays was one of the 1,517 victims of the disaster, and his body was subsequently recovered from the waters of the North Atlantic for burial in Montreal. On April 25, 1912 the entire Grand Trunk system came to a halt for a five minute tribute to the company's past president. Hays never lived to see the Chateau Laurier open, which it did without ceremony on June 12, 1915, presided over by its namesake, Sir Wilfrid Laurier. Hays perished before the completion of the GTP project on April 7, 1914. For other uses, see Atlantic (disambiguation) The Atlantic Ocean is Earths second-largest ocean, covering approximately one-fifth of its surface. ... April 25 is the 115th day of the year in the Gregorian Calendar (116th in leap years). ... 1912 (MCMXII) was a leap year starting on Monday in the Gregorian calendar (or a leap year starting on Tuesday in the 13-day-slower Julian calendar). ... June 12 is the 163rd day of the year in the Gregorian calendar (164th in leap years), with 202 days remaining. ... 1915 (MCMXV) was a common year starting on Friday (see link for calendar). ... April 7 is the 97th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar (98th in leap years). ... 1914 (MCMXIV) was a common year starting on Thursday. ...

Not long after Hays death, the Grand Trunk reneged on its agreement to operate the federally-owned National Transcontinental system east of Winnipeg, and the Grand Trunk soon faced financial ruin over its decision to build and operate the GTP west of Winnipeg, particularly after the First World War caused traffic on the prairies to decline precipitously.-1... Ypres, 1917, in the vicinity of the Battle of Passchendaele. ...

Local Ottawa folklore suggests that Hays's ghost is rumoured to haunt the hotel that he was scheduled to open. A manufactured image of a ghostly woman ascending a staircase A ghost is an alleged non-corporeal manifestation of a dead person (or, sometimes, an animal or a vehicle). ...

Charles Hays Secondary School, located in Prince Rupert, British Columbia, was named after Hays. Charles Hays Secondary School is a public secondary school located in Prince Rupert, British Columbia. ... Orthographic projection centred over Prince Rupert BC Coast, showing Prince Rupert and Vancouver Prince Rupert is a city in the province of British Columbia, Canada. ... Motto: Splendor Sine Occasu (Latin: Splendour without diminishment) Official languages none stated in law; English is de facto Flower Pacific dogwood Tree Western Redcedar Bird Stellers Jay Capital Victoria Largest city Vancouver Lieutenant-Governor Iona Campagnolo Premier Gordon Campbell (BC Liberal) Parliamentary representation  - House seat  - Senate seats 36 6...

Melville, Saskatchewan, a divisional point on the Grand Trunk Pacific route, was named after Hays. Melville is a small Canadian city located in the east-central portion of Saskatchewan. ...

External links

• Biography at the Dictionary of Canadian Biography Online